Do you have confidence you are more than a material body (The one that decays upon death)?

Question

By a material body I mean one composed of some dozen or so chemical elements and energy.There is no proof of anything else but don't you have hope that your awareness (your real self) is something substantially real.

Answer 1

Yes.... it is a HOPE, because there is no clinching direct evidence...... my belief is not religious nor spiritual.... I just believe that like everything else in this universe, our life or consciousness too ought to be indestructible.... it may change form or characteristics etc. but wouldn't just vanish into thin air or nothingness.... well as you said, it is a hope and this hope is the main factor that gives some significance to my life, otherwise just to live on till the physical death would be quite meaningless to me.

Answer 2

I believe that I am a three fold being. Body, soul and spirit.
In the Bible in ICorinthians 15:44 it says, It is sown a natural
body;it is raised a spiritual body.There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body.
This whole section talks about this!
So I believe, that when a person gets bornagain they receive
spirit.They are no longer just a natural body. When they die,
their spirit returns to God that gave it.
Then at the return in IThessalonians 4:15-18 It explains that we shall be raised if we were dead.And at this time we will re-
ceive a new body.I Corinthians 15:50-54 (King James Vers.)
This is the best way I can explain how I feel about your question.Please read above verses.JN

Answer 3

No, at least not in a meaningful sense of the word confidence. I have been so conditioned to by various influences that I am more than a material body, but I am not even confident that I am a material body. No I believe there is good reason to believe that none of us actually exist, here is why. It is possible that a civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence.
ii. Such a civilization would likely run many – say billions – of these simulations (just for fun; for research, etc.)
iii. A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t know that it’s inside a simulation – it’s just going about its daily business in what it considers the “real world”.
Then the ultimate question is – if one accepts that points 1-2-3 are at least possible, which of the following is more likely?

a. We are the one civilization out there in the universe that will eventually develop the ability to run AI simulations? Or,
b. We are one of the billions of simulations that has run? (Remember point iii.)
In greater detail, his argument attempts to prove the trichotomy, that:

either
intelligent races will never reach a level of technology where they can run simulations of reality so detailed they can be mistaken for reality; or
races who do reach such a level do not tend to run such simulations; or
we are almost certainly living in such a simulation.

If we then assume that the human race could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves in the process (i.e. we deny the first hypothesis); and that once we reached such a level we would still be interested in history, the past, and our ancestors, and that there would be no legal or moral strictures on running such simulations (we deny the second hypothesis) - then

it is likely that we would run a very large number of so-called ancestor simulations;
and that, by the same line of reasoning, many of these simulations would in turn run other sub-simulations, and so on;
and that given the fact that right now it is impossible to tell whether we are living in one of the vast number of simulations or the original ancestor universe, the likelihood is that the former is true.
Assumptions as to whether the human race (or another intelligent species) could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves depend greatly on the value of the Drake equation, which gives the number of intelligent technological species communicating via radio in a galaxy at any given point in time. The expanded equation looks to the number of posthuman civilizations that ever would exist in any given universe. If the average for all universes, real or simulated, is greater than or equal to one such civilization existing in each universe's entire history, then odds are rather overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition that the average civilization is in a simulation, assuming that such simulated universes are possible and such civilizations would want to run such simulations.

Answer 4

I am not my body. I am not my mind completely.
I am my soul - the consciousness.

Many questions were asked in the ancient Hindu texts about
the nature of Parama Atama (infinite soul, or Almighty) and
Atma (soul). In the olden days, Gurus used to put these
questions to disciples to test their knowledge.

What is the constituent material of Almighty? All created
materials are subject to decay and annihilation, Almighty
is above the influence of decay and annihilation. He
is eternal.

Then is Almighty a void? In terms of material
characteristics, Almighty is void (Soonya).

Can this lead to the logic that Almighty is not there?
No. Almighty is there. He is consciousness, the infinite
consciousness. The Atma which is a finite piece of Almighty,
according to Advaita Vedanta - the personal consciousness.
Soul was created in the likeness of Infinite Soul.

Since Atma is only a minute piece of Almighty, is it
subjected to annihilation? No. Atma is also eternal.

Answer 5

According to Hindu philosophy, ' I ' is referred to as Soul...not the body. Soul is permanent and body is temporary. Soul goes on changing the bodies like dresses. The soul never dies. Water cannot wet, air cannot dry or eye cannot see the soul. Soul is 'Atma' and supreme soul is 'Paramatma'.

There are again two theories.... one is 'dvieth' and the other is 'advieth'. dvieth says atma and paramatma are diferrent and advieth says atma and paramatma are same.

These theories are based on continuation of life after death.

Personally I am of the opinion that there is life after death and it depends upon what we do in this life. If we do good things in this life we will have better life and viceversa.

Answer 6

Yes.. This is the main purpose of life. To continuously hope that the divine part of the body (the soul) returns back(through salvation) and join its Creator when the material part degenerates,

This hope reminds us to continue avoiding to do what is evil in this world full of trials and tribulations, that our divinity will further prove the realms of divine existence.

Answer 7

Yes. Since I remember about a dozen of my past lives, I am sure that I am more than just my body.

Answer 8

I don't mind if it is real or not. If it's not real I would simply question the definition of "real".